Kenojuak Ashevak gets posthumous birthday Google doodle

CBC

Kenojuak Ashevak, the famed Canadian and Inuit art pioneer, is getting a tribute in pixels today courtesy of the Google doodle.

The search engine's daily design is a brown and ochre owl with proudly splayed feathers. It's an obvious homage to Ashevak's most famous work The Enchanted Owl on what would have been the artist's 87th birthday.

She died in her home in Cape Dorset, Nunavut, in 2013 after a long battle with cancer.

Ashevak created the iconic stone carving in 1960. The red, black and blue print was featured on a Canadian stamp in 1970, and quickly became an enduring symbol of art in the North.

The original The Enchanted Owl is currently housed in the National Gallery of Canada.

Ashevak was born in 1927 in a camp on Baffin Island and lived the traditional nomadic life on the land before settling in Cape Dorset.

Despite being known as one Canada's greatest artists, Ashevak ​is also remembered for her modesty.

Okpik Pitseolak, an artist from Cape Dorset who knew Ashevak, told CBC News shortly after the artist's death that she was "very humble about her work."

Pitseolak said that when she appeared on the radio to talk about her art, she didn't want to come across "as someone who brags" about it. But she was "thankful for the fact that she was given this gift."